Abstract
BackgroundPhysical activities are important for children and adolescents, especially asthmatics. A significant proportion is considered less active than their non-asthmatic peers and mother’s beliefs about asthma are thought to be a determinant factor.The research objectives were to investigate whether mothers try to impose limitations on the physical activity (PA) of their asthmatic children/adolescents; identify associated factors; and explore if this attitude has any impact on children’s PA levels.MethodsIn this cross sectional investigation, we studied 115 asthmatics aged between 9 and 19 years and their mothers. Asthma severity, PA level and exercise induced bronchospasm (EIB) were evaluated. Mothers were questioned on their beliefs about physical activity in non-asthmatic and asthmatic children, if they imposed restrictions on their children’s physical activity, on EIB perception and personal levels of anxiety and depression.ResultsNinety six percent of the mothers answered that PA are important for children and adolescents. Despite this, 37% of them admitted imposing restrictions to their children’s PA. This attitude was associated with mother’s negative opinions about asthmatics doing PA, perception of children’s dyspnea after running on a treadmill, mother’s anxiety level and children’s asthma severity. The mother’s restrictive attitudes were not associated with children’s lower PA levels.ConclusionA high proportion of the mothers said that they restrained their asthmatic children from engaging in physical activity. This fact should be recognized by health professionals and discussed with parents and caregivers as these negative beliefs may lead to conflicts and prejudiced attitudes that could discourage children’s involvement in physical activities and sports.
Highlights
Physical activities are important for children and adolescents, especially asthmatics
There are evidences that children and adolescents with asthma are less active than their non-asthmatic peers and a maternal negative influence has been identified as a limiting factor [10,11,12]
The objective of this study was to investigate whether the mothers in an urban community imposed restrictions on the physical activity of their asthmatic children, to identify possible factors related to this attitude and to check if there was an association between this behavior and the amount of children’s and adolescent’s PA
Summary
Physical activities are important for children and adolescents, especially asthmatics. A significant proportion is considered less active than their non-asthmatic peers and mother’s beliefs about asthma are thought to be a determinant factor. The research objectives were to investigate whether mothers try to impose limitations on the physical activity (PA) of their asthmatic children/adolescents; identify associated factors; and explore if this attitude has any impact on children’s PA levels. Physical activities and sports are considered safe for asthmatics, recommended as a part of their treatment and should not be avoided. This is true even in patients with a diagnosis of exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) provided they are adequately monitored and prophylactically treated [7,8,9]. Other factors may contribute to the mother’s restrictive attitudes such as negative expectations with regard to PA, anxiety, depression, negative experiences, misperceptions, distorted opinions about physical exercise in asthmatics and the lack of adequate information about the disease [10,15,16,17,18,19,20]
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